Creating a Shared Vision - hint: shared means working TOGETHER

A shared team vision is one that is developed and supported by leaders and team members. Before you can promote the shared vision, you have to create it. Many times, especially in top-down led organizations, leaders develop a vision or goal for a team and then expect the team members to get behind it and support it. When creating a “shared” vision, leaders have to “share” the creation and accountability with team members, so that everyone has a voice and contributes to the process. 

You need a combination of personalities and skills to create and implement a shared vision – whether it’s a large, organization-wide effort for a corporate team, or even on a smaller scale, when you’re trying to coordinate a fundraising team or a church cookout.  Once you’ve created the vision, a team leader coordinates and directs the team members to make the best use of individual strengths and promote that vision.

To promote the shared vision, a leader needs to:

•           Make sure the right team members are engaged and assigned to the right roles. As the team completes different phases of a project or objective, you may need to make adjustments to assignments or recruit additional team members.
•           Create visual reminders of the shared vision. In one organization I’ve visited, the shared vision and values are posted on the walls, in the taglines of emails, and even in the elevators! Having a visual reminder is a great way to keep the vision at the top of everyone’s mind.

Recognize team members who are “doing it right.” Many times, leaders only take notice when someone on their team is lagging behind or failing. One way to promote a shared vision is to recognize when team members are doing their part to support it. In one of our divisions at work, they have created a “Making it Happen” award – leaders or team members can recognize fellow employees and the recipients are honored in a monthly lunch. This gives a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie, and lets other team members know that, if they do a good job, they might be recognized, too!